The United States Ambassador to Israel has voiced disapproval of the Occupied Territories Bill, urging Ireland to “sober up”, reports RTE.
The proposed legislation would ban trade between Ireland and Israeli settlements considered illegal in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
It underwent review yesterday by the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and was brought forward by Independent Senator Frances Black, reports RTE.
Mike Huckabee labelled the bill as “so stupid” and wondered whether it resulted from a case of “diplomatic intoxication”.
“Did the Irish fall into a vat of Guinness,” he stated on the social media platform X, reports RTE.
Huckabee argued that the bill, formally titled the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Bill, “will harm Arabs as much as Israelis”.
He encouraged Ireland to “call the Israel Foreign Ministry and say you’re sorry!”
His remarks follow the committee’s examination of the bill yesterday, during which former justice minister Alan Shatter compared it to laws enacted in Germany during the 1930s, reports RTE.
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Shatter referred to the bill as the first ‘Boycott Jews bill’ introduced by a European government since 1945, saying it mirrored legislation introduced by the Nazis.
However, the committee’s chair, John Lahart of Fianna Fáil, responded that the claim made during the session—that the bill is anti-Semitic—was “hugely hurtful and slanderous”, reports RTE.
Labour TD Duncan Smith said there was a lack of acknowledgment that Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory are illegal.
“That’s a fundamental point of divergence,” he said, noting that Israel was “not the only example of Ireland deploying such a bill”, reports RTE.
He pointed out that in 2014, Ireland passed an “identical bill” banning trade in goods and services with areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia.
Independent TD Catherine Connolly criticised the Government for having “inexplicably” “left out” three of the four categories outlined in Senator Black’s original 2018 OTB bill, reports RTE.
“The violation of international law puts an obligation on us to do all we can” in response to “genocide and slaughter”, she said during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin denounced Israel’s conduct, especially the “latest phase” of the war which he described as “collective punishment”.
He explained the Government’s approach to the matter, stating that “when we get the legal advice back we will have greater clarity in terms of the inclusion of services or not”, reports RTE.
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